


The Theraputic Benefit of Blanket Forts

by Miraculous_ninjabird



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Cole is afraid of the dark, Cuddling, Fluff, Multi, Nightmares, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Talking about feelings (kind of), could be read as platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29818107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miraculous_ninjabird/pseuds/Miraculous_ninjabird
Summary: Cole has nightmares about his fall. They can be difficult to process and always leave him feeling cold and alone. Good thing Jay has the perfect plan to help him feel better!Otherwise known as Cole has a nightmare, and Jay ropes them all into building a blanket fort to help him feel better.
Relationships: Cole/Kai/Jay Walker/Zane (implied)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	The Theraputic Benefit of Blanket Forts

Darkness swirled around him, oppressive and insistent. His legs were heavy, his lungs felt constricted, and it was so very, very cold… His car was right there. If only he could just take a few more steps then he would be safe. But the darkness surrounds him, holding him prisoner. Slowly but surely it’s suffocating him. He collapses on the ground, unable to move or hardly even breath. So this is it then. This is where he dies. Cold and Alone.

Cole startles awake with a strangled gasp. His flight-or-flight has him attempting to bolt out of bed, but his limbs get tangled into the sheets and instead he crashes to the floor. The cold, suffocating sensation still clings faintly even as he becomes fully aware that it was just a dream. Nothing else but a dream.

Reaching out, he feels his phone cord and uses it to tug the device down to him. The display reads 1:18am. With a groan, he lets his arm fall back across his face. For a moment he just lays there. There was early training tomorrow. He should go back to sleep. He should. But he wouldn’t. There was no point. Previous experience told him that the dream would only return. Grabbing his blanket, he gets up and heads out of the room in search of something to calm his thoughts.

Usually on nights like this, Cole does one of three things. He either wanders the halls of the monastery until he either gets tired or the new day starts, heads for the kitchen and camps out with whatever sweet thing they have on hand, or he plays video games. Tonight was going to be a kitchen night, but he’s distracted by the fact that the living room light is still on. Zane usually made sure all the lights were off before he retired for the night unless a room was in use. Which meant someone else was still awake. Who else would still be awake at this hour? 

Pushing the door open, he spots Jay. He’s hunched over a controller and is so engrossed in the game he’s playing that he doesn’t seem to notice Cole.

“Jay?” he asks hesitantly.

“What’s up, Cole?” Jay responds, eyes not leaving the screen. So he had noticed him then.

“What are you doing? You know we have early training tomorrow, right?” 

“Yeah I know. It’s not too late yet. I’m just going to finish this up and then I’ll go to bed.”

“Jay, it's one in the morning,” Cole deapans. That seems to get the other ninja’s attention.

“Oh shit, really? I didn’t even notice. Seriously?” Jay gasps, pausing his game and scrambling around for his phone to check the time. “Zane’s going to kill me when he finds out. I promised him I wouldn’t stay up late.” 

Cole snorts. Typical Jay. They stare at each other for a moment before Jay narrows his eyes.

“Why are you awake then? You have to be up at the same time.” He accuses. Cole freezes, remembering why he was here. He averts his gaze.

“I just had a nightmare is all. I wasn’t ready to go back to bed.” he admits. Jay frowns a little. “Don’t worry, it’s totally normal. I’ll be fine.” Cole rushes to try and reassure him. From the look Jay gives him, he doesn’t think it worked. Jay pats the spot next to him as an invitation.

“Nightmare? I didn’t know you had those. Do you want to talk about it? Or just a distraction? Sometimes when I have nightmares I just need a distraction.”

“I...I don’t know.” Cole admits. Wrapping the blanket around his shoulders, he shuffles over and sinks down next to Jay. “Maybe talking would help, but I don’t really want to remember it.”  
Jay gives him an odd look, almost like he’s thinking really hard about something. It doesn’t take long for his eyes to light up.

“I know exactly what you need!” he exclaims. “Here, finish this level for me!” I’ll be right back,”

Before Cole has a chance to protest, Jay is shoving the controller into his hands and bouncing out of the room. He blinks, unsure of what had just happened. The feelings from earlier make their presence known once again now that Jay was gone and he shivers. What should he do now? Looking between the door and the T.V., he elects to do as Jay asked and finish the level. It was as good of a distraction as any.

He ends up playing three levels before Jay returns with so many blankets piled in his arms that he can hardly see where he’s going. Following closely behind, much to Cole’s surprise, is a somewhat disgruntled looking Kai. His arms are similarly piled with pillows.

“Jay, you told me there was a very good reason you were keeping me awake. What exactly is the point of all this?” He grumbles, depositing the pillows on the floor. “Oh, Hi Cole. Do you know what’s going on?” Cole shakes his head. 

“Cole said he was having a hard time sleeping, so we’re going to build him a blanket fort!” Jay explains, dropping his blanket collection next to the pillows and starting a search for more. Cole and Kai both stare at him blankly.

“A blanket...fort?” Cole cocks his head. “What is that supposed to be?”

Jay pauses his rummaging to look back at them in shock.

“You’ve never built a blanket fort?”

“Nope!” Kai pops.

“What he said.” Cole points at Kai. He doesn’t remember ever seeing Jay look so scandalized before. Which is saying something because it’s Jay. 

“You, my friends, have been denied one of life’s greatest joys. It’s super fun! My mom and I used to build them all the time. It always helped when I was scared or upset.” Jay chatters, pulling blankets and pillows from various closets and cupboards. Briefly, Cole wonders why exactly they have so many. “Don’t worry, it’s super easy. We just take all the blankets and stuff and, well, build a fort. Then we all sit inside and do whatever.”

“And again, the point of that is?” Kai still sounded skeptical.

“To help Cole feel better, duh.”

“And you really think that this will help?” Cole asks.

“I’m sure of it,” Jay nods. “Like I said, it always seemed to help me so I have no reason to believe that it won’t help you.”

Cole thinks for a moment, and then shrugs. It couldn’t hurt to try it, and it wasn’t like he had anything better to be doing right now. (Except sleeping, but that didn’t count.) Maybe trying something new would help him feel better.

“Okay, why not?” He agrees. Jay turns towards Kai.

“What about you? It’ll be way better if you help out.” 

Kai lets out a heavy sigh.

“Fine! I’m already awake so I might as well.”

A wild grin spreads across Jay’s face. He lets out a triumphant little ‘whoop’ that Cole can’t help but find adorable. They waste no time getting started, following Jay’s very specific instructions. 

“Umm, guys? I don’t think this is going to work out so well.” Cole says a little later. It was his third attempt to get the pillows to form a stable wall and it just was not working out. Jay looks over from where he and Kai were working on securing part of the roof to the couch. He snorts.

“Of course it’s not working. You’ll never get those to stay without some kind of support. Try one of the benches from the kitchen. You can lean the pillows against it and then we have something to attach the rest of the roof to.”

Huh. He never would have thought to try that. 

Glancing towards the hall, he is suddenly struck by how dark it is out there. The kitchen is all the way across the monastery, far from the comfort and safety Kai and Jay were providing him. Going alone didn’t sound like a good plan at all.

“Will someone come with me? It might be hard to bring it back on my own.” 

“Don’t you have super stren-” Jay starts, but he’s cut off by Kai.

“Sure thing dude. Let’s go.” He volunteers without hesitation. Cole lets out a little sigh of relief, and together they move out. 

Kai doesn’t bother looking for a light switch, insead opting to use his fire as a light source. It casts uneven light across the walls. Somehow, that makes the shadows seem darker. More alive. This does little but fuel his fear, and Cole finds himself subconsciously moving to grip Kai’s hand tightly. 

“You okay man?” Kai asks gently, stopping to look him over. Cole takes a deep breath.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just...dark. Those shadows are…” He can’t help but shudder. A lightbulb goes off in Kai’s head.

“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t realize. Here, let me get the light.” Kai steps away and flips the switch, flooding the hall with light. Cole instantly felt relieved, but still slid his hand back into Kai’s. Kai looks at him with a quirked eyebrow, but doesn’t question it as they make they’re way to the kitchen. 

The bench ends up being heavier than Cole wants to deal with lifting, and big enough that it makes it awkward to carry. So instead, like the geniuses they are, they decide to push it along the floor back to the living room. 

“Are you sure this isn’t going to wake anyone up?” Cole looks at Kai, and then back to the bench. It’s making a horrible scraping noise against the floor that would make anyone’s ears hurt.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Nya could sleep through Garmadon’s next invasion, Lloyd is on the other end of the monastery, and Zane-”

“And Zane is what?” An icy voice cuts across. The two of them both freeze. Cole turns around to see Zane standing in the doorway of his room, hands on his hips.

“Ah shit. We’re doomed.” Kai mutters under his breath.

“I heard that Kai,” Zane snaps. “And what, pray tell me, do you think you’re doing? 2am is not an appropriate time to be moving furniture.” 

“It was Jay’s idea!” Kai yelps. “We’re just doing what he said!” Cole can make out a hushed ‘I told him to go to bed’ as Zane shakes his head in disappointment.

“It’s my fault.” Cole pipes up. “I had a nightmare, and Jay had this idea to help me feel better but we needed a bench and I didn’t want to carry it. We didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“I was already awake. I’ve been waiting for Kai to return since he supposedly left for the bathroom half an hour ago.” Zane’s eyes soften. “Nightmares are difficult, so I will give you a pass this time. I will say I’m curious to see what Jay has you doing.”

Cole lets out a breath once it becomes clear that Zane isn’t going to shut them down and send everyone back to bed. He does make them carry the bench the rest of the way to the living room though, citing the fact that it was indeed very loud, and damaging the floor.

“You guys are back! Finally, that took forever!” Jay cries when they reach their destination. He rushes over to help, but stops short when he sees Zane. A nervous laugh escapes him. “Oh. Hey Zane.”

“Hello Jay. Cole says you’re doing something to help with his nightmares and I came to see what it was.”

“Oh, we were just making a blanket fort to hang out in so Cole didn’t have to go back to his room by himself.”

“Well, I don’t know what a ‘blanket fort’ is, but maybe you would permit me to assist?”

“Sure! It’s always better with more people!” Jay sounds just as shocked as Cole felt. It usually took far more persuading to get Zane to join in their more unorthodox activities.

With all four of them, it took no time at all to finish building. Once finished, they all stand and admire their handiwork.

“Sooo...what do we do now that it’s done?” Kai gives voice to the very thought in Cole’s head.

“Now we all go inside and hang out! If Cole wants to talk about his dream, we listen and if not, we talk about whatever. Or we can just sleep. That’s an option too.” Jay pulls back the makeshift door and gestures for them to head inside. Cole hesitates. The layered blankets meant that the light didn’t filter inside very well, and it was darker than he was comfortable with. Not wanting to make everyone feel bad though, he clambers in anyways.

Kai, Zane and Jay crawl in after him, making themselves as comfortable as possible in the small space. Cole tries to relax, but it really was too dark in here and he can’t see very well at all.

“Um...I don’t think this is going to work out, I’m sorry, I can’t, it’s too dark” His chest starts to feel constricted like it did in the dream. A vivid flashback fills his mind’s eye and he panics. The darkness is back, it’s coming for him. It’s here to freeze him and then suffocate him into a slow, painful death.

Cole doesn’t really know what happens next, completely unaware of anything but his memory. When he comes back to himself, there is a burning warmth pressed into his side and a soft glow has chased the darkness away. He registers that the light is coming from Zane, his whole body illuminated a comforting blue. The warmth is coming from Kai, who has tucked himself firmly against Cole’s side. Jay’s hand is resting on his knee. All three are wearing worried expressions.

“What was that? Are you okay?” Jay asks.

“I...no. I’m not. I’m afraid of the dark. It reminds me of when I...you know. I have nightmares about it alot. Almost every night, actually. I can usually just go back to sleep, but sometimes they feel so real and I end up doing whatever to try and forget. I didn’t want to worry everyone, so I never said anything” Cole admits. No point in hiding it now.

“Do you...want to talk about it more now?” Jay gives him a reassuring smile. Cole’s hand finds its way on top of his.

“Not really. I’ll tell you about it sometime. But not right now.”

“That’s totally cool. Whatever you’re comfortable with. But you know you can always come to one of us when you need to, right? I care about you. I’m fairly sure they also care about you. We just want you to feel comfortable.”

Cole is struggling to find the right words when Kai decides to add on.

“Seriously dude, Jay’s right. I’m not the greatest talker but you know there’s always an open spot next to me if you need someone to keep you warm. Or just don’t want to sleep alone. Don’t ever hesitate to ask. Hell, you don’t even need to ask.”

“Anything you need, just let me know.” Zane murmurs. “We may not understand exactly what you’re going through, but we’ll try our best to help. There is no need to suffer alone.”

“Guys I...I don’t even know what to say. Thank you.” Tears prick at the corner of his eye. He reaches out and hauls Jay onto his lap, then pulls Zane up against his free side so he can hug them all at once.

“Is there something else someone wants to talk about then?” Jay looks between them. “Cause I’m really not sure what else there is to do now.”

“Instead of talking, I recommend sleeping.” Zane interjects. “It’s now 2:57 am and I doubt Master Wu or Lloyd will allow us to skip all of training tomorrow.” There is a collective realization of just how late it is, and how tired they all are. This means there is minimal complaining as they all shuffle apart. Kai goes to leave the fort, but Cole stops him.

“I was wondering if maybe we could all sleep here? Together? It’s been a long time since we have and I don’t want to be alone.” He’s met by three surprised stares and his face flushes a little. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“Of course we’ll stay here with you. You just generally don’t like to do that with any of us, so it is a bit of a shock.” Zane speaks for the three of them.

“I guess that’s fair. But I want to now. So?”

There’s a chorus of agreements and some more shuffling around so they can get into good sleeping positions. Cole ends up with his arms around Kai, his back pressed to Zane’s, and Jay curled between his and Zane’s legs. It’s warm and comfortable and Cole finds himself quickly succumbing to sleep.

When Lloyd wakes them up the next morning, there’s plenty of complaints about how early it is, and how sore they all are. Even from Zane. (Turns out sleeping on the floor wasn’t the best idea) Despite the fact that he’s tired, and there’s a horrible kink in his neck, Cole can’t help be feel refreshed. He realizes, for the first time since his fall, his sleep had been completely undisturbed by nightmares.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! I'm back with more ninja nonsense! I finished this way to early in the morning so sorry if the ending is a little rushed. Also I didn't really want to edit so sorry not sorry.  
> As always, I hope you enjoy and check out @miraculous-ninjabird on tumblr for more fun things.


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